1994 Memoir – 91. Turnip And Sugar Canes

During the earlier part of our march in formation, my companion and I were able to get out from the road into a farm of turnips. Several soldiers were ahead of us and had piled up turnips dug by hand as they searched for more.

What I did was to place inside my shirt the turnips I pulled out from the ground as I went hunting for more. Joselito did the same.

It did not take a long time for us to fill up our shirts when a fire aimed at us by a Jap guard sent us all scampering back to the road.

Those who piled up a lot of turnips were not able to bring any as we all ran back to formation. Joselito and I had turnips along the way, which served as food and water at the same time.

When our turnips ran out, we again broke formation and entered a thick sugar cane field. There we chewed sugar cane as much as we could and could have easily escaped if we had wanted to. But we feared the people there who were Kapangpañgan, noted for being traitors as shown during the Philippine Revolution when the people of that province joined the Americans in hunting for Gen. Aguinaldo. Besides, we did not know how to speak their dialect.

After resting and having our stomachs full, we rejoined the Death Marchers until we reached an area where we were required to march into a barbwire enclosure.

We were pushed by the guard very close to each other and there ordered to squat. We spent the night in that position. Anybody who stood up was shot down by rifle fire!

I was unable to sleep, hearing the agonizing voices of soldiers dying in that position, and also one movement on any side was felt by everybody!